There is no goal that is too big, only a timeline that is too small + Let’s review some LinkedIn Posts

When I started Ajax Union I was in a RUSH. I just wanted to get there already.?

I wanted to make it so badly. I was in a major rush too.?

The only thing that I was able to focus on was SALES! GROWTH!

And not personal growth, I was focused on business growth.?

Emotions? What's that? Mental health? Out the window.

I ate fast food, smoked, and did not exercise at all.?

The vacations that I took with my family were STRESSFUL because I felt guilty and felt like I was WASTING TIME.?

Is it possible for someone to GROW a business to a million dollars and make a very nice living without spending 16 hours a day grinding?

I did not think that was possible.?

I was totally out of balance.?

Honestly, I didn't even know if I was able to do it. I prayed and hoped that I would have the energy to keep it up.?

Looking back, I would take it a bit slower and enjoy the moment more.?

There are no regrets but there is reflecting and learning from the past.?

When you extend your timeline, you realize that you can be more methodical and FOCUS MORE.?

Where focus goes, energy flows.?

When I was in my early 20s I had a full-time job and 7 side hustles.?

I was the opposite of focus. I was all over the place.?

I was trying to get LUCKY.?

With Ajax Union, I was not trying to get lucky, I had a strategy.?

My goal was to get to a million in annual revenue.?

When we got there, my goal was to double it again.?

When we got there, my goal was to double it again.?

Along the way, Jack Daly asked me what the heck I was doing.?

I said I want to SWIM IN MONEY.?

Must have been all the Scrooge McDuck that I was watching as a child. You know the way he swims in his money!

Turns out, that I really didn't know what I wanted.

Because just wanting money is not sustainable.

I had to go on a journey to find myself.?

I followed my frustrations and the more I followed them the more I found I was AFRAID of so many things.?

I used my business as an EXIT to run away from my problems.?

My relationship was not working, my health was not working, my relationship with spirituality was not working.?

The only thing that was really working was my business.?

But my business was being affected by my lack of balance.?

Many people have sight but they do not have vision.?

I was afraid of looking out 10 years into the future.?

Things were changing FAST because we were growing so fast and I had so many things going on.?

The faster you want to grow the more methodical you need to be with your foundation.?

You cannot grow a castle on quicksand and expect it to last.?

Fast forward March 2020 and we lost 75% of our recurring revenue.?

Our agency almost went under right after my divorce process started.?

I was at an all-time low.?

But the one thing I had going for me was I had PERSONAL GROWTH.?

I was working out, meditating, journaling, working with coaches on my personal development, and had a close group of people supporting me.?

My support system was strong and I looked out into the future.?

I told myself that when I turn 50 my life will be 10000x better than when I turned 40.?

I have to just enjoy the process.?

LinkedIn was so helpful, and the government support for businesses was a lifesaver too.?

I did not have to fire any employees and I was able to close some new businesses even in the middle of a pandemic.?

Things are not as smooth as they were in 2019 but because I enjoy the process and am focused on longer-term goals I am able to deal with any blows that I get short-term.?

I am 100% confident that no matter what happens in business as long as I stay centered and focused on what is most important that I will be able to get to my goals.?

Where is my passion? Helping hungry entrepreneurs go from frustration to mojovation.?

When we create a marketing funnel for a B2B company or we train a sales professional on how to use LinkedIn to get results, that makes me feel alive.?

What makes you feel alive? What brings you passion?

This year I want to train 1000 sales reps in teams and professionals in groups on how to use LinkedIn and I am starting to work on my Q2 goals to impact companies with group training.?

When I write my goals down and I focus on ONE-KEY GOAL, I crush it and it feels good.?

Q1 is not over and we have a bunch of potentials that we have the opportunity to win before the end of March and at the same time, I am always moving forward.?

Remember to set big goals and stay centered.?

Breath DEEP and drink water, exercise, and make time for your family.?

You do not need to work 16 hours a day to reach your goals.?

You can work a healthy 8 hours and get it all done by prioritizing and delegating.?

I recently got a request to answer the following question:

It's easy for you who has already grown a multimillion-dollar business to tell people to have balance and not work 16 hours a day. You yourself worked 16 hours a day to get there!?

Here is what I answered: “Just because that is the approach I took to get there, does not mean that it was the right approach. I sacrificed so much unnecessarily because I did not believe in coaching at the time. Once I started getting support - coaching and learning the ways of successful people - I realized that there is another more balanced approach to get to my goals. I applied that to weight loss and I got to my goals. There is no goal that is too big, only a timeline that is too small. Stop being in such a rush to get there. If you die in the process at least live a life you are proud of. The biggest regret people have at the end of their life is not -I SHOULD HAVE WORKED MORE HOURS-, it's that I should have spent more time with my family and enjoying life. Enjoy life now but be smart and get the support you need.”

One book that really helped me along the way was Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. It really helped me see that if you want something, you can create it, but you have to believe that you can achieve it.?

If you believe that you can create the business of your dreams working 8 hours a day, you will find a way to do it.?

Stop GRINDING just for the sake of GRINDING. Instead, start creating balance and you will find more space to manifest what you want in life.?

Take an extra month, an extra quarter but get there safely.?

My friend Anthony always reminds me “Joe, if you are in a rush, go slow.”

It's pretty great advice because technique and skill are more important than speed in most areas of our life.?

Think about isometric training.?It's all about slowing down and getting results on the RESISTANCE.

Key Message: Focus on bigger goals that have a longer-term timeline and be smart with your time. Prioritize and delegate so you can have more leverage and find a way to enjoy the process instead of only appreciating the results of your work.?

Meeting people in person is 34 times more persuasive than connecting over email or virtually.?

I heard a fellow professional speaker say that and I was shocked because I thought that meeting is meeting.?

Meeting is not meeting. When you connect in person, there is a sort of energy transfer and a bond you cannot get via zoom or email.?

That is why I make it a point to meet someone in person and take a selfie with them.?

I capture that energy that we had at that moment and remember it.?

I recently sent a client 5 selfies of me and him together over the past 5 years.?

Make a list of 10 people you want to meet this year and set up a meeting with each of them.?

Better yet, arrange a dinner for the 10 people and invite them to join you. If 5 join, great you just got to 50% of your goal in one meeting.?

I love getting together with my networking group that meets in person a few times a month.?

If you do not have a group you are part of, you always have the option of starting one yourself.?

Meeting in person is powerful and the way you keep that bond going is virtually.?

Taking your relationship from LinkedIn to in-person and from in-person to LinkedIn is a great way to follow up, stay top of mind, and connect.?

If I like someone, I will ask them for their cell phone number and WhatsApp and text them as well so I have another open channel of communication with them.?

Key Message: Create a few channels of communication but realize that the in-person method is the most persuasive.

Does your business have the ability to SCALE??

I remember when I started my first business I was making one-off websites for people.?

That was FUN but it was not scalable.?

When I started Ajax Union I wanted recurring revenue and I dreamt of the day that I would have 100 clients and the business did a million in sales.?

That dream became a reality pretty quickly when I focused on it and added value to the people that I served.?

Now we are gearing up to start training teams on how to use LinkedIn, again it's recurring and it's of massive value to a company with a team of business development professionals.?

It's also very scalable, I want to train 1000 professionals virtually in 2022, and doing it in a group format makes it doable.?

If I can show even one of your team members to generate 250k in new revenue to your business would you not invest a few hundred dollars to get them trained?

I certainly would! That's what we are rolling out in March and I'm really excited about the impact we are already making. Hit me up if you want to see my offer. I have an email setup as a template and I want 100 people a week to see my offer.?

Just DM me and say “Joe, show me your Evyrgreen Networking for teams offer.” Include your email so it's easy for me to send it to you!?

Do you see how I'm measuring what I am doing? I want you to do the same.

What gets measured gets managed!?

Think about how many people need to see your offer each week for you to get to your goal.?

It brings me so much joy to be able to train people, and show them the path to success while at the same time motivating them and inspiring them to take massive action.?

B2B Marketing Advice: Understand your marketing budget and use it to test

When it comes to marketing, we all know that there are not guaranteed results but there are guarantees.?

The one thing you can guarantee is you will know if you got a result or if you did not get a result.?

Especially if you invested in a marketing strategy that lays out what ROI even is for your business.?

So many professionals are not measuring properly when it comes to marketing because they have not set a marketing budget.?

I just recorded a podcast on how to create the most ideal marketing budget for your business. It's called the High Energy Marketing podcast.?

I break down 5 elements that go into a marketing budget.?

Strategy, Assets, Advertising, Technology, and Execution

The first one is investing in planning out what your goal is and how you want to use marketing as a test.?

When you have a plan, you are much more likely to have success and to know if you are moving toward your goal or away from your goal.?

I love creating plans and watching as I get closer and closer to my goal.?

For example, If I invest 5 hours creating a STRATEGY for my business, I will decide what success looks like, who my target market is and everything about my target market, and what my message is to that target market.?

This all happens WAY BEFORE I ever start marketing because I know that every hour I spend planning, I will get an ROI when I start promoting.?

Imagine if you sent the WRONG message to the WRONG target.. That is not marketing, that is spamming!?

Key Message: Create a marketing budget and start with investing time and money into having a solid strategy. Work with someone that can help you craft a strategy that you can get behind instead of trying to get lucky. Test properly with the right strategy.??

Why didn’t the skeletons like their new CRM?

It was too bare-bones.

You probably do not need a new CRM, you probably need to start making calls and have a strategy that will help you tickle your funny bone.

Why did the marketer break up with her boyfriend?

Lack of engagement.??

Or maybe her boyfriend was spamming her. Make sure you do not have desperate breath when you are reaching out to people you want to do business with. Even monkey business.

Keep your strategies and your breath fresh.

What’s the best way to market cat food?

Develop buyer purrr-sonas.

If you want to be the cat's meow, you need to stop spraying and praying. Stop delaying and start with a strategy that will get you to the milk or the cheese, whatever you are into.?

What is the best type of POST to create on LinkedIn?

I was approached by a fellow speaker whom I respect and he told me that he heard that posting photos on LinkedIn is a waste of time and you have to do TEXT ONLY.?

Does the LinkedIn algorithm really hate photos??

NAH! Not true, look at the feed and most posts have PHOTOS in them.?

Why? Because photos are worth 1000 words.?

I'm a big fan of TEXT ONLY POSTS too because I like to mix it up but definitely use photos.?

Here is a key to remember.?

Do use TEXT without photos but NEVER use photos without text. This is not Instagram where you share a photo and people know what to do with it. Although, it would be an interesting text to just post a photo and see what happens :)?

I like how photos tell a story together with text and it's the perfect MESH of connection between the readers and the watchers.?

Here are the 10 types of posts that I put up on a regular basis.?

1. Text Only
2. Selfie Photo Posts
3. Naitive Video Posts
4. Embedded Documents
5. LinkedIn Polls
6. Animated Gifs
7. Engagement Posts
8. LinkedIn Newsletters?
9. Screenshots & Landscapes
10. Infographic & Stock Images

I do not SHARE posts on LinkedIn because sharing a post does not really make it to the feed very often, although that might be changing soon and if you share a newsletter like this one it does make it to the FEED more often.?

Go ahead and try to share this and let's see what happens but do include your own text when sharing!?

Key Message: make sure to add TEXT to your posts whether you are doing a photo, video, poll, document, or anything else on LinkedIn.?

If you want to learn more about my LinkedIn strategy, please attend our upcoming webinar on how to leverage LinkedIn at https://learn.evyrgreen.com/webinar or watch the replay of the last webinar at https://learn.evyrgreen.com/webinarreplay?

Past Week Posts Review

This morning I was wondering if people are READY to come back to LIVE events so I posted a LinkedIn poll about it and I was surprised to see the results of the poll in the first hour?

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_networking-people-events-activity-6904041922915053568-Zyns Most people are ready to COME OUT but some people are still very careful. Check out the results and feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts.?

Public speaking is something that 90% of people are still afraid of. Here is a post that talks about a lesson I got about how to not be so scared when you are presenting and let your brain relax https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_i-remember-the-first-time-i-got-in-front-activity-6903797208039137280-TBTy If you have any public speaking tips, share them in that post as a comment. Would love to hear from you.?

I use one of the 30 technologies that we teach in our course and coaching program that allows me to post on LinkedIn with a click of a button. But now they allow NAITIVE VIDEO From the application as well to LinkedIn. https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_hentips-networking-activity-6902967997883834368--hNd That is a powerful new feature and I will be publishing a weekly video via the tool. I schedule it and BOOM. Videos have been really transformational for my business. The key is to use them strategically on LinkedIn.?

Each week I produce one HIGH-value Vulnerable post on LinkedIn. This past week I published one about my relationship with my father and how I felt like he would judge me for not being obsessed with religion and instead want to focus on business https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_storytelling-activity-6902948368415289344-5F5s Turns out he never really judged me, it was all in my head. Interesting post and it garnered lots of feedback from my network.?

When it comes to self-limiting beliefs it's powerful to SHARE how to overcome them. Especially when it comes to MONEY we all have beliefs about money but if our beliefs are out of WACK we will not be able to make money. Some people think that money is the ROOT of all evil. https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_money-beliefs-personaldevelopment-activity-6902679273639858178-qN4m Read how to make a shift and take your relationship with money to the next level.?

Last week I shared a poll about what type of business development activity you people want the most and 123 people voted. https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_mojopolls-activity-6902591683335127040-Rgrc 54% of people would rather do NETWORKING and relationship building to get new clients. THAT IS POWERFUL. Lots of people are still into prospecting and inbound marketing but look at the stats! This is really interesting. This is part of the reason I teach networking on LinkedIn!?

This was my selfie post of the WEEK. He gave me my first referral and Ill never forget how much it helped me be able to change my life and understand the power of getting and giving referrals. https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_networking-activity-6902244373589749760-KbWE 20 years later I am still grateful. It's not like we were even best friends but the secret to living is GIVING! Wow!?

For my TEXT only post of the week I discussed the difference between sales and business development based on a conversation I had with a LinkedIn connection and introduction from one of my Students to a business development professional. https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_businessdevelopment-sales-activity-6902041154502606848-R9nM IF you want to read about the difference, it's interesting!?

The video I posted early in the week was about follow-up. So many people lack a follow-up strategy and this video tells you the importance of having a process https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_hentips-networking-activity-6901959121432584192-W5v-?

Took a photo of me FAILING and crashing into a tree while skiing and I shared it https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_advice-networking-success-activity-6901886200609587201-C5C5 it's a funny photo because my skis were stuck on each side of the tree, it was funny and also stressful! LOL Any new skill will be intimidating and often we find LinkedIn intimidating, I share my thoughts about that idea.?

This is my 8th edition to the LinkedIn Newsletter and I committed to writing 50 editions this year! That's a ton of work because it does take me about 2 hours each week to put this together. I enjoy the process so I will keep doing it and YOUR FEEDBACK is helpful.?

With over 6000 subscribers to the LinkedIn Newsletter and it's fun to see how many new people subscribe.

Did you know that I can see who my subscribers are and I can THANK them for subscribing and keep building my relationships?

Here is last week's newsletter that you can check out if you missed it.

What was it about? How you must FAIL if you really want to scale!? https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_networking-trust-fear-activity-6901533625993482240-xQJt? - I'm pretty happy with the way it came out.?

Thank you for reading this newsletter! It's 3500 words this week :)

About The Author:

Joe Apfelbaum is the CEO of Ajax Union a B2B Digital Marketing Agency in Brooklyn NY. Ajax Union develops marketing funnels for companies that want to be more strategic. Our strategies include lead generation, account-based marketing, awareness campaigns, and prospecting. We leverage search engines, social media, and email marketing to support your goals and get the right traffic into your marketing funnel so you can have a positive ROI.

To learn more go to?www.ajaxunion.com?and watch the marketing funnel presentation!

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